Africa

Prof Rosalie David, University of Manchester & former Director of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology Biomedical Egyptology, a multidisciplinary study based on analytical investigation of mummies and associated material, has added a new dimension to the study of Ancient Egypt, bridging the gap between arts and sciences. The University of Manchester (UK) has developed an Ancient […]

Joyce Tyldesley, Manchester University Egyptology is a relatively new and fast-moving science: it is not yet 200 years since Champollion decoded the hieroglyphic script (1822) and revealed Egypt’s dynastic history. Increasingly, we are able to tie that long history into Egypt’s archaeological remains. The past decade has seen major changes in our understanding of mummification, and in […]

Chris Naunton, Director of the Egypt Exploration Society It is worth reminding ourselves just how thrilling archaeology in Egypt has continued to be, despite the widely held belief that there probably isn’t much left to find. My personal highlights in recent years include: evidence at Tell Ed-Daba by Manfred Bietak that corroborates the well-known iconography showing that […]

Horemheb: The Forgotten Pharaoh Charlotte Booth Amberley, £9.99 ISBN 978-1445610184 Coming to the throne shortly after Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, Horemheb is often overshadowed by his more famous predecessors. Yet his 15-year reign was vital in restoring stability to Egypt after the dramatic cultural and social changes of the Amarna period, Charlotte Booth writes in […]

Egypt’s former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs fell into archaeology by chance, yet it came to dominate his life. Dr Zahi Hawass talks to CWA about how he discovered his passion for his country’s rich heritage, and why it remains undiminished to this day.

Australopithecus sediba had a mixture of primitive and modern anatomical features, and a unique way of walking, newly published research says. The first fossilised remains of the hominid, which lived around two million years ago, were found in 2008 (CWA 41), at Malapa, 48km (30 miles) north of Johannesburg in South Africa. Now, six new […]

Discovered by British divers off the coast of Tobruk, Libya, in 1964, the Belgammel Ram would have been fixed to the upper bow of a small Greek or Roman warship to break enemy oars. Now extensive tests, led by Dr Nic Flemming of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, have revealed a wealth of new […]

Excavations on Manda, an island off the coast of Kenya, have revealed a 600-year-old Chinese coin linked to the expedition of Admiral Zheng He, the celebrated Ming Dynasty explorer. Found in a midden by researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago, and the University of Illinois, the small copper and silver disc has a square […]

A forgotten WWI battlefield lies in Africa’s Namib Desert. Few historical accounts exist of the campaigns fought here, so James Stejskal and John Kinahan look to the archaeological record for evidence of conflicts that helped change the course of world history.

To early Orientalists, they were exotic people who used arcane ritual and repulsive medicines; but in Antiquity, Egyptian doctors were regarded as the epitome of medical excellence. Prof. Rosalie David tells CWA how recent investigations are revealing their exceptional pioneering practices.

Ancient Egypt’s oldest iron artefacts were made from meteorite, new research has confirmed. The 9 small, tubular beads were found in graves at Gerzeh, a Pre-Dynastic cemetery about 70km (43 miles) south of Cairo, in 1911-1912. Dated to c.3600-3350 BC, they significantly pre-date the earliest evidence for iron smelting in Egypt, which is thought to have […]